Server sales continued to surge amid a strong corporate upgrade cycle in the first quarter of 2011.

Global server market revenue jumped 12.1 percent to $11.9bn (£7.3bn) from a year ago, according to IDC data. Unit shipments came in 1.9 million units in the first quarter, the second highest total ever for the first three months of the year.

All types of servers — volume, mid-range and high-end enterprise — saw gains. Demand for x86 servers remained strong and IBM saw gains for its Power systems and System z servers. The quarter was so strong for servers that even Unix servers showed sales gains for the first time in 11 quarters.